The Moment of Birth and the Early Years

Chapters 5 and 6 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

The moment of birth is the moment the chart is cast for. But the sky at that moment says more than how a life will unfold over the years. It also describes the birth itself: where it happened, who was present, what the room looked like, and what marks the newborn carries. And it speaks of the most fragile time in any life, the first years.

The scene of the birth

Who was present

The chapter opens with the father. If the Moon does not look at the rising sign, the father was not present at the birth. The sign of the Sun then shows where he was. A movable sign puts him abroad, a fixed sign at home in his own country, and a dual sign on his way back (5.1). Certain placements of Saturn, Mars and the Moon also show his absence (5.2), and others show that he was held in custody somewhere at the time (5.7).

A few verses describe unusual circumstances of birth: twins born together in one sac, a child born with the cord wound around part of the body, or, in the text's striking image, a birth "like a serpent, or wrapped in one" (5.3 to 5.5). One verse, reflecting the social concerns of its time, asks whether the child was born of the mother's husband, and gives Jupiter's gaze as the sign that it was (5.6).

Where the birth took place

The sky also shows the place of birth. In general, the place matches the nature of the rising sign or of its navamsha, whichever is stronger (5.13):

राश्यंशसमानगोचरे मार्गे जन्म चरे स्थिरे गृहे । स्वर्क्षांशगते स्वमन्दिरे बलयोगात्फलमंशकर्क्षयोः ॥

rāśyaṃśasamānagocare mārge janma care sthire gṛhe | svarkṣāṃśagate svamandire balayogāt phalam aṃśakarkṣayoḥ ||

The birth takes place in surroundings like the rising sign or its navamsha. In a movable sign, it happens on the road; in a fixed sign, in a house. When the rising navamsha falls in its own sign, the birth is in one's own home. The result follows the sign or the navamsha, whichever is stronger.

We met this idea in the first article: each sign has its natural places, the ram in pastures and the fish in water. Here it is put to use. A movable sign, the sign of motion, points to a birth on the way somewhere. A fixed sign points to a birth indoors. A vargottama navamsha, the sign repeated twice over, points to the most familiar place of all, the family home.

Other verses add particular places. With the full Moon and watery signs strongly placed, the birth happens on a boat or beside water (5.8 to 5.9). With Saturn in a watery sign rising, and aspected by Mercury, the Sun or the Moon, it happens in a pleasure house, a temple, or on barren ground (5.11). With Saturn in a human sign rising, the planet looking at him decides the place: Mars a cremation ground, Venus and the Moon some lovely spot, Jupiter the hall of the sacred fire, the Sun a palace, temple or cowshed, and Mercury an artist's workshop (5.12). These lists bring the world of the sixth century vividly to life.

Two verses also describe a mother leaving her newborn, and whether the child survives. Jupiter's gaze again brings protection and a long, happy life (5.14 to 5.15).

The birth room

Some of the most charming verses in the book describe the room in which the child was born. The Moon in Saturn's sign or navamsha, or in the fourth house, points to a birth in darkness, and planets in their fall to a birth on the ground (5.17). Then comes the lamp (5.18):

स्नेहः शशाङ्कादुदयाच्च वर्तिर्दीपोऽर्कयुक्तर्क्षवशाच्चराद्यः । द्वारं च तद्वास्तुनि केन्द्रसंस्थैर्ज्ञेयं ग्रहैर्वीर्यसमन्वितैर्वा ॥

snehaḥ śaśāṅkād udayāc ca vartir dīpo 'rkayuktarkṣavaśāc carādyaḥ | dvāraṃ ca tadvāstuni kendrasaṃsthair jñeyaṃ grahair vīryasamanvitair vā ||

The oil is known from the Moon, and the wick from the rising sign. The lamp, whether movable, fixed or otherwise, is known from the sign the Sun occupies. The door of the house is known from the planets in the angles, or from the strongest planets.

In a room lit only by an oil lamp, the Moon shows the oil, the rising sign shows the wick, and the Sun, the giver of light, shows the lamp itself. If the Sun is in a movable sign, the lamp was being carried. If it is in a fixed sign, the lamp stood in one place.

The house itself is described too: old and repaired under Saturn, burnt under Mars, new under the Moon, built mostly of wood and not strong under the Sun, made by many craftsmen under Mercury, lovely and painted under Venus, and strong under Jupiter (5.19). Further verses describe where in the house the birth room lay, where the bed stood, and how many women attended the mother (5.20 to 5.22).

The newborn's body

Appearance

The child's build resembles the lord of the rising navamsha, or the strongest planet in the chart. The child's colouring follows the lord of the navamsha the Moon occupies (5.23). These are the planetary portraits of Article 3, now applied to a living person.

The body mapped onto the houses

A remarkable verse maps the body onto the twelve houses, to show where on the body a mark or scar will be found. To understand it, two ideas are needed.

The first is that the rising sign has three drekkanas. Which of the three is rising at birth decides which band of the body the houses describe: the head, the trunk, or the lower body.

The second is the visible half of the sky. At any moment, half of the zodiac is above the horizon and half below it. The houses from the seventh round to the twelfth are above the horizon, the risen half. The houses from the second to the sixth are below. The risen half stands for the left side of the body, and the hidden half for the right.

With these two ideas, the verse reads clearly (5.24):

कंदृक्श्रोत्रनसाकपोलहनवो वक्त्रं च होरादयस्ते कण्ठांसकबाहुपार्श्वहृदयक्रोडानि नाभिस्ततः । बस्तिः शिश्नगुदे ततश्च वृषणावूरू ततो जानुनी जङ्घाङ्घ्रीत्युभयत्र वाममुदितैर्द्रेष्काणभागैस्त्रिधा ॥

kaṃdṛkśrotranasākapolahanavo vaktraṃ ca horādayas te kaṇṭhāṃsakabāhupārśvahṛdayakroḍāni nābhis tataḥ | bastiḥ śiśnagude tataś ca vṛṣaṇāv ūrū tato jānunī jaṅghāṅghrīty ubhayatra vāmam uditair dreṣkāṇabhāgais tridhā ||

Counting from the rising sign: the head, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the cheeks, the jaw, and the mouth. Then the throat, the shoulders, the arms, the sides, the heart, the chest, and the navel. Then the lower abdomen, the genitals and anus, the testicles, the thighs, the knees, the shanks and the feet. On both sides alike, the risen half is the left. The body is divided in three by the drekkanas.

If the first drekkana is rising, the rising sign itself stands for the head. The houses on either side of it, the second and the twelfth, stand for the two eyes. The third and eleventh are the two ears, the fourth and tenth the two sides of the nose, the fifth and ninth the two cheeks, and the sixth and eighth the two sides of the jaw. The seventh house, opposite the rising sign, is the mouth. The same pattern runs down the trunk if the second drekkana is rising, and down the lower body if the third is rising.

In each pair, the house in the risen half (8 to 12) is the left side, and the house in the hidden half (2 to 6) is the right.

Marks and scars

Once a part of the body is identified, the planets in that house describe what is found there (5.25). A harsh planet points to a wound or scar. A gentle planet, joined and looked upon by other gentle planets, points to a birthmark or mole. If the planet is in its own sign or navamsha, or in a fixed sign, the mark is present from birth; otherwise it comes later in life.

The cause of an injury follows the nature of the planet: Saturn, stone or wind; Mars, fire, weapons or poison; Mercury, a fall to the earth; the Sun, wood or a four-footed animal; the Moon, a horned animal or a creature of the water. The gentle planets bring no injury, only good marks. A harsh planet in the sixth house, the house of injury, marks the body in the matching place (5.26).

The vulnerable early years

The next chapter turns to bālāriṣṭa, "danger in childhood": the combinations that warn of danger to a child's life in its first years.

It helps to remember the world in which these verses were written. In the ancient world, many children did not survive their earliest years, and every family knew this grief. This chapter is a careful record of what the astrologers of that world looked for when they feared for a newborn. It belongs to its time, and it is presented here faithfully, as part of the text.

What the chapter warns of

The warnings follow a few recurring patterns:

• Birth at twilight, when day turns to night, with harsh planets at the very ends of signs (6.1).
• The Moon and harsh planets filling the angles, or harsh planets surrounding the rising sign on both sides (6.1 to 6.2).
• A weak or waning Moon in a difficult house, such as the twelfth, the sixth or the eighth, joined with or looked upon by harsh planets (6.4 to 6.7).
• The rising sign or the Moon hemmed in between harsh planets, with no gentle planet looking on (6.7 to 6.8).

A few verses also speak of danger to both mother and child, especially at an eclipse (6.7, 6.9).

The protection of the gentle planets

Running through almost every verse of the chapter is one condition: the danger holds only if gentle planets do not intervene. Again and again the text adds "if not seen by benefics", "if benefics are not in the angles", "if not joined by strong Venus, Mercury or Jupiter". The tenth verse puts it most clearly:

असितरविशशाङ्कभूमिजैर्व्ययनवमोदयनैधनाश्रितैः । भवति मरणमाशु देहिनां यदि बलिना गुरुणा न वीक्षिताः ॥

asitaraviśaśāṅkabhūmijair vyayanavamodayanaidhanāśritaiḥ | bhavati maraṇam āśu dehināṃ yadi balinā guruṇā na vīkṣitāḥ ||

When Saturn, the Sun, the Moon and Mars occupy the twelfth, ninth, first and eighth houses, danger comes swiftly to the newborn, if these planets are not seen by a strong Jupiter.

The gaze of a strong Jupiter turns the whole combination aside. This is the spirit of the chapter: harsh placements describe a danger, and gentle ones guard against it. Later commentators gathered long lists of such protecting factors, called ariṣṭa-bhaṅga, "the breaking of danger": a strong Jupiter in the rising sign, gentle planets in the angles, a full Moon between gentle planets, and many others.

Within the first year

The last verse says that when such a danger does come, it comes as the Moon returns to certain key points of the chart, and that, according to the sages, the period for it is within the first year (6.12).

Today, with modern medicine and care, the dangers these verses describe are very different from what they were in Varahamihira's time. The chapter is best read as a window into the fears and the hopes of a world in which every surviving child was a gift, and in which the gentle planets were looked to, above all, for protection.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapters 5 and 6. English renderings are our own, made from the Sanskrit and checked against the public-domain translation by N. Chidambaram Aiyar (1885; second edition 1905) and against the word-by-word analysis in Michael D. Neely's edition.